A precedent-setting EPA update to a key set of air pollutant standards faces a lawsuit from an environmental group that alleges the agency didn’t assess the potential effects on endangered plants and animals.
“The science is very clear that this air pollution can do devastating and irreversible harm to vulnerable wildlife and plants like the bay checkerspot butterfly and Shenandoah salamander,” Ryan Maher, a Center for Biological Diversity attorney, said in a news release announcing the suit, filed Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
“The EPA ignored both the law and the science when it failed to make sure these harmful pollutants won’t drive some endangered species to extinction,” Maher added.
The suit challenges the update to what EPA officially deems its secondary ambient air quality standards for sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. Released last month, the revised regulations mark a first-ever attempt to cumulatively confront the impact of those pollutants when they settle back to earth in the process known as atmospheric deposition.
